After school in North Manchester I worked as a farm labourer in Surrey for a year before university. I studied at the University of Reading (BSc Agricultural Economics), McMaster University (MA Economics) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (PhD Economics, University of London). I then worked for four years as a junior administrator for the Commission of the European Communities in Brussels, in DG VI (the Directorate-General for Agriculture). I returned to the University of Reading in 1977 as a lecturer in Agricultural Economics, and was appointed to the chair in Agricultural Economics in 1988. Although I ‘retired’ in 2008, I am still actively engaged in research. I am also available to undertake consultancy projects.

Current research preoccupations include:

Exploring the UK’s agricultural and trade policy options following the country’s referendum vote to leave the EU (Brexit), and particularly its agri-food trade relations with Australia

CAP ‘reform’

Understanding the influence of the GATT and the EEC on successive UK governments’ farm policy deliberations in the 1960s